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102 Minutes
Jul. 14th, 2005 02:39 pmI've been reading 102 Minutes : The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers. One of the interesting details I didn't know about before reading this book was that that NYFD firefighters actually got to the 78th and 79th floors of the South Tower, the one that was hit 2nd and lower, and were starting procedures to fight the fire when the building collapsed. They were able to get that far up because a freight elevator to the 40th floor was operational at least some of the time after the impact.
Thing is, by the time the firefighters were able to get into position, it wouldn't have made much of a difference if they'd managed to put it out. The structural damage from the fire which caused the collapse had already passed the point of no return. Another detail from the book is that the NYC Buildings Department enginners sent word over to the fire chief on the scene that the buildings were in danger of collapse, but the info didn't arrive through channels until right before the first collapse, when it was too late to do anything.
Hypothetically, if the building had been stronger, or the damage less severe, putting out the fire may have saved the people above the impact zone in the South Tower, where there was also one stairwell still in passable condition from top to bottom, so the effort wasn't entirely without merit even in 20-20 hindsight. The North Tower was much more difficult, since the impact was so much higher (94th floor) and all stairways were destroyed at the level of the impact. The computer system for opening the doors to the roof in both towers was also knocked offline by the impacts, so evacuation by helicopter wasn't possible, even if the smoke and fire hadn't made such an effort very dangerous in the first place. So, even if the North Tower hadn't collapsed, there probably wasn't much that could have been done to save the people above the impact zone.
Further hypothetically, I wonder what the Port Authority would have done if the fire had burned itself out, but the top of the WTC buildings was shown to be structurally unstable? Its difficult to imagine any kind of controlled demolition to sheer off the damaged top being feasible, given the proximity of other buildings nearby. It may have been possible to reinforce damaged sections, but again, that would have required there to be a lot less damage than there was. And how long would it have taken to do repairs, or even to start them? I recall what happened at One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, where a skyscraper under construction caught fire and was left as a burned-out hulk for over a half-decade while insurance companies fought over who was going to pay for the thing.
Thing is, by the time the firefighters were able to get into position, it wouldn't have made much of a difference if they'd managed to put it out. The structural damage from the fire which caused the collapse had already passed the point of no return. Another detail from the book is that the NYC Buildings Department enginners sent word over to the fire chief on the scene that the buildings were in danger of collapse, but the info didn't arrive through channels until right before the first collapse, when it was too late to do anything.
Hypothetically, if the building had been stronger, or the damage less severe, putting out the fire may have saved the people above the impact zone in the South Tower, where there was also one stairwell still in passable condition from top to bottom, so the effort wasn't entirely without merit even in 20-20 hindsight. The North Tower was much more difficult, since the impact was so much higher (94th floor) and all stairways were destroyed at the level of the impact. The computer system for opening the doors to the roof in both towers was also knocked offline by the impacts, so evacuation by helicopter wasn't possible, even if the smoke and fire hadn't made such an effort very dangerous in the first place. So, even if the North Tower hadn't collapsed, there probably wasn't much that could have been done to save the people above the impact zone.
Further hypothetically, I wonder what the Port Authority would have done if the fire had burned itself out, but the top of the WTC buildings was shown to be structurally unstable? Its difficult to imagine any kind of controlled demolition to sheer off the damaged top being feasible, given the proximity of other buildings nearby. It may have been possible to reinforce damaged sections, but again, that would have required there to be a lot less damage than there was. And how long would it have taken to do repairs, or even to start them? I recall what happened at One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, where a skyscraper under construction caught fire and was left as a burned-out hulk for over a half-decade while insurance companies fought over who was going to pay for the thing.
